Stand for securing a two-wheeled vehicle, especially a motocross-motorcycle

ABSTRACT

A stand ( 1 ) for securing a two-wheeled vehicle, especially a motocross motorcycle ( 2 ). The stand includes a base part ( 3 ) to be positioned on a surface ( 18 ), a lifting member ( 4 ) being vertically displaceable in relation to the base part ( 3 ) between a lowered position and a raised position and having a supporting surface ( 5 ) adapted to abut a downwardly facing surface of the vehicle. The stand is provided with at least one retaining member ( 6 ) having a downwardly facing contact face ( 7 ) adapted to engage an upwardly facing surface ( 8 ) of the vehicle and to secure the vehicle jointly with the lifting member in the raised position thereof. The retaining member ( 6 ) is mounted on a holding member ( 9 ) being mounted on the base part ( 3 ) and projecting upwardly there-from such that the vehicle ( 2 ) is clamped between the retaining member ( 6 ) and the lifting member ( 4 ), when said lifting member is moved to its raised position.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to a stand according to the preamble of claim 1.

When two-wheeled vehicles, such as motorcycles, scooters, mopeds orbicycles are to be transported from for example the manufacturer to animporter or from the importer to the dealer, they need to be fixed toprevent them from tipping over on or in the means of transportationused, for instance a truck, a box van, a ship, a train, a plane or thelike. Other situations require this type of fixing as well, for instancethe transportation of wrecked vehicles to the garage or of motorcyclesused in competitions from one racing event to another. Two-wheeledmotorcycles may be provided with a supporting leg, but this is often notsufficient. Usually, motorcycles used in competitions are not providedwith supporting legs at all.

BACKGROUND ART

Many different stands are known for fixing two-wheeled motor vehicles inthe vertical position to enable repair and transportation. U.S. Pat. No.4,681,299 discloses a lifting device for motorcycles, the motorcycleresting with the lower face of the cylinder block on the lifting deviceand a pair of straps being wrapped around the foot rests. A disadvantageof said lifting device is that it is relatively tedious to use becausean effective fixing is obtained only when the device is lifted all theway up to abut the lower face of the cylinder block to allow the strapsto be wrapped around the foot rests.

WO 01/53190 A1 discloses a lifting device for motorcycles, said liftingdevice including a jack and two supports whose upper ends are intendedto engage the foot rests of the motorcycle. In order to prevent themotorcycle from tilting about the axis of the foot rests, it isfurthermore necessary to use stabilising members fastened to other partsof the motorcycle.

A stand according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from U.S. Pat. No.4,460,158. This stand includes a base part to be positioned on asurface, a lifting member being vertically displaceable in relation tothe base part and having a supporting surface adapted to abut adownwardly facing surface of the vehicle, and said stand further beingprovided with a retaining member having a downwardly facing contact faceadapted to engage an upwardly facing surface of the vehicle and tosecure the vehicle jointly with the lifting member. A disadvantage ofsaid stand is that the lifting member must be brought to abut thedownwardly facing surface of the vehicle in order to allow the retainingmember to abut the upwardly facing surface of the vehicle.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

The object of the invention is to provide a new and improved stand forsecuring a two-wheeled vehicle and allowing the vehicle to be fixed in afast simple and steady way.

The object according to the invention is obtained by mounting theretaining member on a holding member being mounted on the base part andprojecting upwardly there-from such that the vehicle is clamped betweenthe retaining member and the lifting member, when said lifting member ismoved to its raised position This allows the vehicle to be fixed in afast and simple way, the stand being arranged in relation to the vehiclesuch that the lifting member is under the vehicle and the retainingmember is above an upwardly facing surface of the vehicle so that themotor vehicle is secured between the retaining member and the liftingmember when said lifting member is moved to its raised position. Thus,it is not necessary to first bring the lifting member to abutment andthen secure or arrange the retaining member correctly in relation to thevehicle.

According to the invention, the stand may include two holding membersbeing inter-spaced in the transverse direction of the stand so that thevehicle can be arranged therebetween, and the retaining members of saidholding members extending transversely from the respective holdingmember towards the other holding member. In this way, a particularlysteady fixing is obtained, allowing the retaining members to engage thevehicle on each side thereof.

According to the invention, when seen in a cross-sectional view, theretaining members may be reversed U-shaped such that the contact facehas downwardly extending legs on each side. As a result, the retainingmembers are particularly suitable for engaging the foot rests of amotorcycle which in this way can be received in the U-shaped crosssection.

According to the invention, the retaining members may be displaceable inthe longitudinal direction of holding members and/or in the transversedirection of the stand, thereby allowing the stand to be adapted tovarious types and sizes of two-wheeled vehicles.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the lifting membermay be positioned between the two holding members which are shaped asvertical guide means for the lifting member, thereby obtaining aparticularly simple and practical embodiment.

According to the invention, the holding members may be U-shaped in avertical sectional view, the U-shaped transverse section receiving theend of the lifting member. As a result, a particularly simple guidemechanism is obtained.

According to a particularly preferred embodiment, one of the legs in theU-shaped transverse section of each holding member may be provided withan incision to allow the lifting member to be brought out of engagementwith the holding members when the lifting member is in its loweredposition. This allows the lifting member to be removed from the stand,thereby making it easier to arrange the stand under the vehicle or toroll the vehicle over the base part into the correct position. Afterhaving positioned the vehicle in relation to the stand, the liftingmember may be arranged into place in the cross section of the holdingmembers again to fix the vehicle.

According to the invention, the stand may include a jack being removablyarranged between the base part and the lifting member. Such a jack maybe a standard product, thus being easily replaceable.

According to an embodiment the stand may be adapted to allow the jack tobe secured to the lifting member and with the secured lifting member tobe brought out of engagement with the holding members in the loweredposition of the lifting member. Accordingly, it is particularly easy andsimple, especially in cramped spaces, to position the vehicle and thestand in relation to each other as the vehicle only is to be rolled overthe base part, per se, whereafter the jack and the lifting member can bepositioned so as to fix the vehicle.

According to the invention, the downwardly facing surface of the jackmay have horizontally acting fixing means and the upwardly facingsurface of the base part may have complementarily shaped fixing means,thereby allowing the jack with the secured lifting member to be fixed onthe upwardly facing surface of the base part in a particularly easy way.

The retaining member(s) and the lifting member may preferably bearranged in the same vertical plane extending perpendicularly to thelongitudinal axis of the vehicle. As a result, significant moment offorce influences of the vehicle are avoided so that other parts of thevehicle, for instance the wheels, need not be under significant load,thereby sparing the bearings of the wheels by not exposing them to heavyvibrations during transport.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in detail below with reference to a preferredembodiment shown in the drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is the stand in an end view

FIG. 2 is the stand in a side view securing a motocross motorcycle, and

FIG. 3 is the stand viewed from above

BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

A stand for securing a two-wheeled vehicle, especially a motocrossmotorcycle, is shown in an end view in FIG. 1. The stand is preferablymade of steel sections and includes a base part 3, a positioning rail11, two vertically extending holding members 9 attached to the base part3, a vertically displaceable lifting member 4 as well as a jack 10. Theholding members 9 are made of U-sections, the cross sectional openingsthereof facing each other. The U-shaped sections serve as guide means tothe horizontally extending lifting member 4 made from a square section.Between the lifting member 4 and the base part 3, a jack 10 is arranged,which can be of any type, but which, in this case, is a scissor jack. Atthe upper end of each holding member 9 there is provided an inwardlyextending retaining member 6 also made from a U-section, the crosssectional opening thereof facing downwardly. A positioning rail 11 inthe form of a trough-shaped section projects perpendicularly from themiddle of the base part 3. This positioning rail is intended forreceiving the rear wheel of the motor vehicle. The holding members 9 areprovided with incisions 16 in the legs of the U-shaped section indicatedby a dashed line in FIG. 1. These incisions 16 are of a size allowingthe lifting member 4 to be removed horizontally when the lifting memberis in a lowered position. The jack 10 can be fixed or removably arrangedon the downwardly facing surface of the lifting member 5 and can befixed to the upwardly facing surface of the base part 3 by a pin-boremechanism.

When the stand is to be used for securing for example a motorcycle, thelifting member 4 and the jack 10 are removed from the stand, whereafterthe motorcycle is rolled in-between the two holding members 9 so thatthe rear wheel is placed in the positioning rail 11 as shown in FIG. 2.The motorcycle is arranged so that the foot rests 12 extending from eachside of the cylinder block 17 are directly underneath the retainingmembers 6. The jack 10 and the lifting member 4 are then arranged asshown in FIG. 1, and by activating the jack 11, the lifting member israised to abut the downwardly facing surface of the cylinder block ofthe motorcycle or the frame, and the motorcycle is raised until the footrests abut the downwardly facing surface 16 of the horizontallyextending legs of the U-shaped retaining members 6. As a result, themotorcycle is clamped between the retaining members 6 and the liftingmember 4. As it appears from FIG. 2, the rear wheel rests on the rail 11and the front wheel rests on the surface 18 in the fixed position, butthe majority of the weight of the motorcycle is carried by the stand.The bearings of the wheels are thus not under significant strain duringthe transport on for instance a truck, where the stand and themotorcycle are exposed to vibrations. The stand 1 and the motorcycle 2are very steadily positioned due to the width of the base part 3 andbecause the front wheel and the rear wheel of the motorcycle abut thesurface 18.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the stand from above. It clearly showsthe positioning rail 11 including a bended metal plate having ahorizontal bottom part 12 and two lateral parts 13 extending obliquelyupwards therefrom. The dot-and-dash line 15 indicates the positioning ofthe scissor jack 10, the jack being inclined in relation to the basepart. This allows an easier access to the rotation means 14, see FIG. 1,by means of which the spindle of the jack can be rotated so as to raiseand lower the jack.

The middle the base part 3 is provided with an upwardly extending guidepin 19 which can engage a correspondingly shaped hole in the jack.

The invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For instance, thejack 10 and the lifting member 4 can be permanently arranged on thestand, in which case it may be necessary to push the stand in betweenthe front wheel and the cylinder block and then roll the motorcycle alittle forward until the foot rests are underneath the retainingmembers. Alternatively, the stand can be positioned so that thelongitudinal axis thereof is inclined in relation to the longitudinalaxis of the motorcycle, whereafter the rear wheel is rolled up on thepositioning rail, the front part of the stand then being turned inbetween the front wheel and the cylinder block, followed by themotorcycle being rolled forward again until the foot rests areunderneath the retaining members 6.

The jack can be fixed to the downwardly facing surface of the liftingmember 4 or alternatively the upwardly facing surface of the jack or thedownwardly facing surface of the lifting member 4 or both can beprovided with simple mechanical fixing members to fix the two inrelation to each other in the horizontal plane.

The lifting member 4 can also in a simple manner be included in theupper part of the jack, which usually is used for lifting a vehicle orthe like.

In FIG. 1, the upwardly facing surface of the lifting member 4 isprovided with a glued rubber layer 5 to protect the downwardly facingsurface of the vehicle and increase the friction, thereby reducing therisk of the vehicle slipping on the lifting member while it is beingraised.

In the illustrated embodiment, the total height of the stand is approx.400 mm and the two holding members 9 have an interspacing of approx. 470mm, the retaining members 6 extending approx. 100 mm inwardly from eachholding member. The width of the base part is approx. 750 mm and it ismade out of a hollow square section measuring 30×50×2.5 mm. A U-sectionmeasuring 40×40×4 mm is used for the holding member. A hollow squaresection with the cross sectional dimensions of 30×50×2.5 mm and a lengthof approx. 538 mm is used for the lifting member.

In the illustrated embodiment the foot rests of the motocross-motorcycleare used for fixing. It is, however, also possible to use other parts ofthe motorcycle, for instance the upwardly facing surface of the cylinderblock, the seat or the fuel tank.

The stand according to the invention is particularly suitable for thetransportation of motocross motorcycles, it being easy to position themotocross motorcycle on a trailer or in a box van due its compactstructure.

However, it is also possible to use the stand for other types oftwo-wheeled vehicles such as common motorcycles, scooters, mopeds andeven common bicycles. When the stand is used for securing a scooter, itis possible to use the upper face of the foot resting base thereof asthe face engaging the retaining member. When the stand is used for abicycle, it is possible to use the pedals for fixing.

1. A stand for securing a two-wheeled vehicle, especially a motocrossmotorcycle, said stand including a base part to be positioned on asurface, a lifting member being vertically displaceable in relation tothe base part between a lowered position and a raised position andhaving a supporting surface adapted to abut a downwardly facing surfaceof the vehicle, said stand further being provided with at least oneretaining member having a downwardly facing contact face adapted toengage an upwardly facing surface of the vehicle and to secure thevehicle jointly with the lifting member in the raised position thereof,characterised in that the retaining member is mounted on a holdingmember being mounted on the base part and projecting upwardly therefromsuch that the vehicle is clamped between the retaining member and thelifting member, when said lifting member is moved to its raisedposition.
 2. A stand according to claim 1, characterised in that itincludes two holding members being interspaced in the transversedirection of the stand so that the vehicle can be arranged therebetween,and the retaining members of said holding members extending transverselyfrom the respective holding member towards the other holding member. 3.A stand according to claim 2, characterised in that when seen in across-sectional view the retaining members are reversed U-shaped suchthat the contact face has downwardly extending legs on each side.
 4. Astand according to claim 3, characterised in that the retaining membersare displaceable in the longitudinal direction and/or in the transversedirection of the holding members.
 5. A stand according to claim 4,characterized in that the lifting member is positioned between the twoholding members which are shaped as vertical guide means for the liftingmember.
 6. A stand according to claim 5, characterized in that theholding members are U-shaped in a horizontal sectional view, theU-shaped transverse section receiving the end of the lifting member. 7.A stand according to claim 6, characterized in that one of the legs inthe U-shaped transverse section of each holding member is provided withan incision to allow the lifting member to be brought out of engagementwith the holding members when the lifting member is in its loweredposition.
 8. A stand according to claim 7, characterized in that itincludes a jack being removably arranged between the base part and thelifting member.
 9. A stand according to claim 8, characterized in thatit is adapted to allow the jack to be secured to the lifting member andwith the secured lifting member to be brought out of engagement with theholding members in the lowered position of the lifting member.
 10. Astand according to claim 9, characterized in that the downwardly facingsurface of the jack and the upwardly facing surface of the base parthave complementarily shaped and horizontally acting fixing means.
 11. Astand according to claim 10, characterized in that the retainingmember(s) and the lifting member are arranged in the same vertical planeextending perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle.